Being someone who enjoys the use of language, I am pissed as hell at Trump's offer of 'congratulations' to Sgt Barrientos. Thank the man for his service, talk about his valor, his sacrifice, reassure him that he will be taken care of by the government and people he sacrificed so much for... but congratulations? The man was maimed for life, that's no cause for congratulations.

The problem with Donald Trump is that he has never experienced privation, never chosen a path of service, never sacrificed a blessed thing for the good of his fellow human beings. He has no concept of sacrifice, so he can glibly congratulate an individual on the loss of a leg. He is the sort of individual who can unthinkingly say that he always wanted a Purple Heart:

3 comments:

Yeah, congratulations seems... boneheaded in this context. Of course, very little of what the President says ever comes across like the words of someone who has given much thoughtt to what he's saying or the topics he's talking about.

For some reason, that doesn't seem to bother a sizable portion of our country.

Yep. He sees a medal, an award, a prize - he wants one. But I ain't buying the whole 'stolen valor' line of crap. You were either in combat or you weren't. Nobody can 'steal' that from you. The only badge that matters is the CIB - if you have one, you have your 'valor' (and the memories and the horror and perhaps even the PTSD) and if you don't have one you can't 'steal' it from somebody else...

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